Thou Art a Priest for Ever

Part 12 of a series on The Christian and The Psalms.

By Simon Padbury • 6 December 2025 • 28 minutes read

The epistle to the Hebrews identifies the Man whom David calls “my Lord” in the first verse of Psalm 110 as the High Priest of the New Covenant, and it does so repeatedly by drawing a lot of doctrine from the fourth verse of the same psalm: “The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”

What has Psalm 110 got to do with the New Covenant? This:

  • Here is prophesied the ultimate and final High Priest of the LORD’s people, whose office Jehovah himself directly ordained by his great eternal vow, or oath, that he has sworn and will not repent of, so that the Lord is High Priest forever—as Melchisedek’s was in type, so he is the Antitype;
  • This High Priest is also said to be David’s Lord, and God has summoned him to sit at his right hand—he is on the throne of all authority, all power, interceding for his people;
  • This great Messiah, the Anointed High Priest-King, is none other than he whom we also know from other Old Testament Scriptures to be the Son of God and the incarnate God himself (e.g. Psalm 2; Isaiah 9:6-7; 40:3, 10-11);
  • He is therefore the Antitype of all the types in the Old Testament Scriptures, the True of which all others are figures, or symbolic shadows;
  • His reign is above all reigns and his intercession before God is totally efficacious (I know of no better word for this), because it is offered to God not in the pattern but the true Holy of Holies in Heaven (Hebrews 9:24);
  • And therefore it must be that the atoning sacrifice the Messiah offers does save his people from their sins;
  • And so this is the One true Lord Jesus Christ who is able to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by him.

Starting with the introduction to the epistle to the Hebrews, we read of how the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). He purged our sins by the breaking of his body and the pouring out of his blood of the New Covenant on the cross at Calvary, outside the Jerusalem city wall.

We are reminded of Christ’s own words at his last supper before he was crucified, at that Passover with his disciples in the upper room. “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament,1 which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). This we do in remembrance of him, and of his purging our sins when he brought in the New Covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-34).

After his death and burial in the tomb, Christ rose from the dead the third day, and he showed himself to his disciples a number of times over the forty days that followed, giving them “many infallible proofs” that he was alive again (Acts 1:3). And after his resurrection, he was taken up into heaven again by his Father. He ascended to be with his Father and our Father, his God and our God (Acts 1:9-11; John 20:17). And that is when and where he sat on his throne on the right hand of the majesty on high—in fulfilment of Psalm 110:1.

The Lord’s Unchangeable Priesthood

Christ is not only seated at God’s right hand as both David’s and our Lord and King, but he is also seated there as the great High Priest of his people; and this both by ordination from Jehovah: “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool…The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:1, 4).

“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:1-2). The eternal Son of God, creator of all things, who is before all things, and by whom all things consist (Colossians 1:17)—himself ministers as our great high priest; he has purged our sins. And now he is still officiating as both our King and High Priest, from where he is seated on the right hand of the Majesty, God on high. Our “priest for ever” “ever liveth” with an “unchangeable priesthood” to make intercession for us, his people, from his thone (Luke 24:50-51; Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:19-24).2

The New Testament doctrine of Christ’s High Priestly session (“sitting”) is also taught to us by the exposition of Psalm 110:4. In the epistle to the Hebrews we learn how Christ became a priest by the great oath or vow that “the LORD hath sworn”. “So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 5:5-6; referring to Psalm 2:7 and 110:4).

When was the Anointed One’s anointing, his great ordination by God himself, here revealed to us in this Psalm? David received this revelation of the Messiah’s kinghood and priesthood as being having already established, before David’s time: “The LORD said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand…The LORD hath sworn…Thou art a priest for ever…” (vv.1, 4). The LORD said, past tense; not saith, or shalt say. The LORD hath sworn, past tense; not swareth, or shalt swear.

The Son of God always was, and is, and forever shall be the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. Our Prophet is the “Word”, the Logos who was already with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2; 1 John 1:1). And Jehovah has from eternity past sworn him to be a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. Christ’s High Priesthood actually is without beginning and without end—unlike that of Melchizedek, whose high priesthood was only typically beginningless and endless (we will consider this more, below). And Christ was always the eternal king: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

He is “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending [of everything in Creation], saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). Past: through him all things were made; present: he upholds all things by the word of his power; and future: he will make all things new in a new heaven and a new earth (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:3; 2 Peter 3:10-12; Revelation 21:1, 5-6).

Therefore, as Paul encouraged us, we Christians should be “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:12-18). It is impossible to think too highly of Christ.

This is how Christ himself and his apostles understood him to be. The verses in Psalm 110 that we have been considering are not to be interpreted merely in a prophetic future-as-though-already-past sense, but they are a revelation of what has actually happened in eternity past. But here in this article we are particularly considering his eternally anointed priesthood. Christ revealed himself to be the eternal High Priest of his people, always was and always will be. And his apostles taught the same, concerning his salvific High Priestly ministry:

  • “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:1-5; this is part of Christ’s high-priestly prayer);
  • “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6);
  • “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:8);
  • “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life [through Jesus Christ], which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:1-2);
  • “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (1 Peter 1:18-21);
  • “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

David’s Lord, his Anointed Son, is none other than the eternal High Priest of the New Covenant. And the Christ’s “sacrifice of himself” accomplished far more than the blood of animals in the Tabernacle and Temple ever could—actual salvation, and this an everlasting salvation: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament [new covenant], that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:11-15).

After the Order of Melchizedek

Jehovah had already ordained his Son into his high and eternal priesthood in eternity past, long before king David. But what is the meaning of that part in the LORD’s eternal vow to David’s Lord, that he would be a priest for ever “after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4)? We have only a few verses in Genesis where we learn about Melchizedek: “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all” (Genesis 14:18-20).

The author of Hebrews brings out the meaning of these verses: “For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness3, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually” (Hebrews 7:1-3).

Melchizedek (or Melchisedec, as we have it from the Greek) was a man. Of course he had a father and a mother. But the Scripture, which sometimes presents the covenantal provenance of a priest or king by giving an account of their ancestry, gives us no record of where Melchizedek has come from. In the Scriptural record, he simply is the king of Salem, priest of the most high God. Furthermore, the God-breathed epistle to the Hebrews draws out the special significance of this conspicuous absence of back-story. In Genesis, this mystery about Melchizedek makes him “like unto the Son of God”. His seeming to have “neither beginning of days, nor end of life” portrays him as a type of Christ.

Melchizedek is not Christ, nor is he a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ (he is not a Christophany, or theophany). He is not “made like unto the Son of God” in any other way than this: he is set before us as a type of the Son of God. And, not as Melchizedek is in himself, but as he is as a type of Christ, he “abideth a priest continually”. Melchizedek does not have a continual priesthood, but the One typified by him does have a continual priesthood, from eternity past to eternity future. It is to the Son of God alone that the LORD has made this eternal covenantal promise: “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Moreover, this does not mean that Christ received his priesthood by being anointed into the Melchizedek priestly line. No, but Christ had already, in eternity past, received his anointing from God the Father to be the Prophet-Priest-King, the Antitype whom Melchizedek is partially portrayed “like unto”. Melchizedek was a shadowy figure for the time then present, the Scripture recording and not recording particular details about his life for the purpose of teaching us about Christ; lessons that are later reinforced and extended by the tabernacle and Levitical priests and their sacrifices—and then later explained in the epistle to the Hebrews, so that we cannot miss these truths (Hebrews 8:1-6; 9:1-12; 10:1-18).

And we must not take this typical “order of Melchizedek” to mean a priestly line or office that any other man can be ordained into; for there is only one vow of the LORD here, and it is made to “thou” in the singular, David’s Lord, Jesus Christ alone (Psalm 10:1).

The whole Melchizedek pattern and doctrine of a beginningless, continual, endless anointed kinghood-priesthood is like that only the Son of God can have. And there is only one fulfilment of this pattern, and it is our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ alone.

We see Christ in Melchizedek in this sense: it is ultimately Christ himself who is the King of Righteousness and Peace, and our Priest of the most high God. Christ is our Melchizedek—not the type but the Antitype.

By Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people, the righteous God himself remains righteous while forgiving our sins and making us righteous, who were ungodly (Romans 4:5; 5:6-8; 1 Peter 3:18). “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 5:7-10).

Consider How Great This Man Was

We continue to be schooled in the lessons that Hebrews draws out from Melchizedek: “Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he [i.e. Melchisedec] whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better” (Hebrews 7:4-7).

This is the type, pattern, or picture (“similitude”, see Hebrews 7:15) that Melchizedek was: he ministered as King of Righteousness and Peace, and as Priest of the Most High God, over his people in the city-state called Salem. This people had found shalom,4 peace with God through their Melchizedek, who was a type of the Messiah to come. (This is the reason why the Hebrew word for peace is their city name.) They were a saved people who believed in the Saviour, the Antitype himself, whom they saw dimly but nonetheless saw through the righteous rule, faithful preaching, and accepted-by-God sacrifices performed by their prophetic and prophesying Priest-King.

The citizens of Salem were not descendants of Abraham (or of Israel). But they are certainly included in the greater spiritual commonwealth of the people of God, who are justified in Christ’s blood that would be poured out for them one day; for the promise of this salvation was already made by God’s eternal covenant vow, and he is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-21; Revelation 13:8). So, Christ’s atoning sacrifice made at Calvary thousands of years later has been applied to them retrospectively—same as it is applied to us prospectively, thousands of years later.

We are not informed in the Scripture where this people came from. Perhaps they were children of Shem; and perhaps Melchizedek was Shem, as some people speculate. But that we are not told is itself important: like as Melchizedek was a type of Christ, so this saved people are symbolic of all the nations what shall be saved by the Messiah.

We Christians are fellowcitizens and fellowheirs5 alongside these Salemites. They are our brothers and sisters in the Bride of Christ. Their true Melchizedek, of whom their earthly Melchizedek was a figure, is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And he is ours too. Christ is our Shalom—“he is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14-17). “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Thus their city of Salem is a also a type of the our city of Salem, the Church of Christ.

Abraham also saw Christ through Melchizedek and gave him worship, as is evidenced in the practical matter of him giving Melchizedek his tithe—and so did all children of Abraham in Abraham, including the later Levitical priesthood (see also John 8:56). Abraham was a great man of God, and a friend of God (Genesis 18; 22:15-18; 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8 James 2:23); and he had a blessing from God pronounced upon him by this greater man of God: the King of Righteousness and Peace, the Priest of the Most High God. “And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better” (Hebrews 7:7).

Melchizedek’s blessing upon Abraham came from Christ himself, Abraham’s own true Melchizedek. Therefore, this historical encounter between Abraham and Melchizedek is surely part of what Jesus had in mind when he said to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). And this is further proved by Christ’s own affirmation: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).

Our Greater-than-Melchizedek

Consider how great this man Melchizedek was—and then see in his name, titles, offices and ministry our Greater-than-Melchizedek. The kinghood and priesthood of Christ is infinitely greater than that of Melchizedek, who prophetically foreshadowed him. Melchizedek’s priestly ministry would have consisted of prayer, preaching, and animal sacrifices for his people; functions that were in some ways like those of the Levitical order of priests that came later (including Aaron, the first High Priest of the Levitical order). However, nothing is said in Genesis, Psalms, Hebrews or anywhere else concerning Melchizedek’s animal sacrifices. But they would have taught the same lessons as those of the Levitical priesthood.

The author of Hebrews sums up the effect of the Levitical ceremonies: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:1-4).

The important lesson that the author of Hebrews would have us understand about the Levitical and Aaronic priesthood, their sacrifices, the Tabernacle, and all the ceremonials of the Mosaic Law, is that they typified Christ, the Lamb of God who would come and take away the sins of the world. And he has now come. And what the author of Hebrews would have us understand from Melchizedek’s typical, seemingly beginningless and endless Kinghood-Priesthood is that he typified Christ, the eternal Anointed Priest-King who was to come. And he has now come. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Antitype who fulfils all these prophetic types.

Now understand the argument of Hebrews: “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood” (Hebrews 7:11-14).

This change in the law happened when the LORD’s eternal oath (revealed in the prophecy of Psalm 110:4) superseded the Levitical laws. This change, or supersession, happened with the coming into force of the New Covenant, in the sacrifice of Christ himself (Hebrews 9:26).

The Bringing in of a Better Hope

The author of Hebrews draws even more out of Psalm 110:4: “And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 7:15-17).

Our Lord Jesus Christ is this “thou” to whom the oath of the LORD was made. He is David’s Lord, who rose from the dead and ascended to sit at the right hand of God. It was in fulfilment of his office as “priest for ever”, bestowed upon him by the LORD’s oath, that Christ arose from the table in the upper room, went to Gethsemane and prayed, and then handed himself over to the Jews and the Romans to be crucified. After his resurrection, it was with his own blood he appeared in heaven and went into the Holy of Holies, and put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself (9:23-28). Jesus is the only Priest whose sacrifice saves his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

“For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:18-19). All who are ever saved, are saved not by the types and shadows, but by Christ himself, alone.

“And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament [i.e. the new covenant]. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:20-25).

The Lord Jesus Christ is our great high priest, forever and unchangeable. The LORD who bestowed upon him this High-Priestly office “will not repent” of his great oath—he will not take it back and revert to the Levitical priesthood, nor will he supercede our great High Priest by inaugrating yet another priestly order. There is no need of any other! Christ is the Lamb of God who was slain for the sin of the world, and he takes our sin away (John 1:29).

“For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath [spoken of in Psalm 110:4], which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore” (7:20–28).

Appendix

Matthew Poole’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, at Hebrews 9:24-26:

V.24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands: for shows this to be a rational proof of the transcendency of Christ’s death and sacrifice; and this he demonstrates from the place of his ministry, far exceeding that of his type. The gospel High Priest did not, like Aaron, enter with his blood into the holy of holiest of an earthly tabernacle, frail and movable, and appear before the mercy-seat on the ark there, Hebrews 9:9.

Which are the figures of the true; all these were but like and correspondent figures and resemblances of the true, holy, and glorious place of God’s residence.

But into heaven itself; but he, as our High Priest, did enter with his atoning blood, after the sacrificing of himself on the cross, into the heaven of heavens, and approached the throne of justice, and propitiated it, making it a mercy-seat and true throne of grace unto penitent, believing sinners; and then perfected the work of propitiation and redemption: afterwards at his triumphant ascension, he entered in his whole person immortal, and laid open a way for our entering there.

Now to appear in the presence of God for us; where he now appears as our advocating Mediator, pleading his merit for the remission of our sins, and rendering of God’s face smiling on and favouring his clients, which was terrifying and affrighting to guilty Adam before: see Hebrews 7:25, Hebrews 10:19, Romans 8:34, 1 John 2:1, 2 Kings 5:6. Here he represents our persons to God’s face, fitting in the mean while us beneath for our seeing him face to face, and being blessed in the enjoyment of that prospect for ever.

V.25. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

The excellency of Christ’s sacrifice beyond the Aaronical is argued here from its singularity; it needs no repetition, as their multiplied sacrifices did.

Nor; oude, introducing it, is but inferring this excellency of Christ’s sacrifice, by denying in it that weakness which was annexed to the legal ones [i.e. the sacrifices of the Law]; there was no need that he should die yearly, to fulfil the type of the often yearly sacrifices of the legal high priest, who entered with the blood of bulls and goats, strange blood to him, and not his own, into the holy of holiest in the tabernacle, and entered so every year once, to show the virtue of his sacrifice to be only signal, typical, and passing, to make room for a better, that single, individual one of Christ, in respect of sacrifice and oblation.

V.26. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

For then must he often have suffered; epei the consequent is drawn ab impossibili; if he had often offered himself, he must have often suffered, but he could not suffer often. For where there was offering, there must be a sacrifice, and so suffering. Now that Christ should do so in his own person, was impossible and absurd, for God to have put his Son on suffering so cruel a death so often.

Since the foundation of the world; from the fall of Adam at the beginning of the world, ever since sin needed a sacrifice: but his once suffering as a sacrifice for it was of eternal virtue in God’s purpose, answering and satisfying God’s justice; one death of the Second Adam for the sin said penalty of the first, in the efficacy and virtue of his death, which was everlasting. The often and annual sacrificing of the Aaronical priests, and entering of the holy of holiest with the blood of beasts, was to show the Jews their weakness [the weakness of the Aaronical priests’ repeated sacrifices], and to instruct them in, and lead them to, this one sacrifice once to be offered, of eternal avail, as is subjoined.

But now: but Christ the gospel High Priest was not only God-man, manifested to be so, and exhibited as such an officer by his work, but was manifested to be such by promise, and in types and figures from Adam’s fall; but now showed it clearly in his suffering work, 1 Timothy 3:16.

Once in the end of the world; the days of Christ’s ministry on earth under the fourth monarchy [i.e. the Roman Empire; see Daniel ch.2 and ch.7], called the last time, 1 John 2:18, the ends of the world, 1 Corinthians 10:11, the fulness of the time, Gal. 4:4, God’s set and best time for his appearance; and it was but once that he appeared in these days, performing this work.

Hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; then he sacrificed himself, offered up his blood to God within the veil, taking away by his own blood, which God required, the guilt, stain, and power of all sin, justifying believers from any condemnation by it, by what he did and suffered in their stead for their good, who fly from it for refuge to him, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9:24, Romans 7:24–25, 1 John 3:5.

  1. The Greek word διαθήκη, diatheke (Strong’s Concordance, Greek Dictionary, number 1242) is translated as both “testament” and “covenant”. See footnote 7 in the previous article, Fellowcitizens with the Saints in Israel. ↩︎

  2. Westminster Larger Catechism, Questions 54 and 55:

    Q. 54. How is Christ exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God?
    A. Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, in that as God-man he is advanced to the highest favour with God the Father,[a] with all fulness of joy,[b] glory,[c] and power over all things in heaven and earth;[d] and doth gather and defend his church, and subdue their enemies; furnisheth his ministers and people with gifts and graces,[e] and maketh intercession for them.[f]
    [a] Philippians 2:9. [b] Acts 2:28 compared with Psalm 16:11. [c] John 17:5. [d] Ephesians 1:22; 1 Peter 3:22. [e] Ephesians 4:10-12; Psalm 110. [f] Romans 8:34.

    Q. 55. How doth Christ make intercession?
    A. Christ maketh intercession, by his appearing in our nature continually before the Father in heaven,[a] in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth,[b] declaring his will to have it applied to all believers;[c] answering all accusations against them,[d] and procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings,[e] access with boldness to the throne of grace,[f] and acceptance of their persons[g] and services[h].
    [a] Hebrews 9:12, 24; [b] Hebrews 1:3; [c] John 3:16; John 17:9, 20, 24; [d] Romans 8:33-34; [e] Romans 5:1-2; 1 John 2:1-2; [f] Hebrews 4:16; [g] Ephesians 1:6; [h] 1 Peter 2:5. ↩︎

  3. Melchizedek, מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק (Strong’s Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary, number 4442), is a compound of מֶלֶךְ, melek, meaning king (Hebrew 4428) and צֶדֶק, tsedeq, meaning righteousness, or justice (Hebrew 6664). Together: “My King is Righteous” or even, “My King is Righteousness” in his essential perfections. ↩︎

  4. The Hebrew word that is the name of this city, םלשׁ, shalem, means peace (Strong’s Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary, number 8003). ↩︎

  5. See a previous article in this series, Fellowcitizens with the Saints in Israel. ↩︎